How much should tech companies regulate information? While Facebook and Twitter have up to now chosen to err on the side of free speech, an unlikely platform has taken an important step. Pinterest found that users were searching for information on vaccines, so CEO Ben Silbermann pulled all medical information from the platform.
Vaccines have been a contentious issue in social media, but not in science. While the science is clear that vaccines save lives, there has been a reemergence of previously eradicated diseases like measles. That reemergence has been linked to disinformation shared in social media.
Since mid-2019, Pinterest has only allowed verified sources to post medical information. While the site is admittedly smaller than the tech giants, Pinterest still boasts 291 million monthly active users. Silbermann has gone on record stating that his site has a responsibility to avoid harm, and as such is holding itself accountable for the consequences of the information that's shared on the site.
Silbermann said to Vox, "If you don’t take some responsibility for what people see, you’re at some level responsible for the downstream consequences of that."
He went on, "The lesson that everyone’s learned over the last few years is that if you want positive things to come out of internet technology, they have to be deliberately engineered that way."
